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As winter storms and summer season warmth waves more and more stress the nation’s energy grids, Stevens researchers have developed a brand new strategy to establish the properties most weak to blackouts—with out even visiting them.
The timing could not be extra important. With greater than 1 / 4 of U.S. properties already totally electrical, and photo voltaic installations set to triple in the course of the subsequent 5 years, understanding vulnerabilities has turn into important for emergency planning and public security.
“We’re racing toward electrification to combat climate change, but we must also understand the risks involved,” says Stevens professor Philip Odonkor, who led the analysis mission. “So, what happens to these solar and electric homes when the power goes out?”
Summer time energy, winter blues
Odonkor, with current graduates and AI summer season fellows Andrew Majowicz M.Eng. ’24 and Chetan Popli M.S. ’24, got down to reply that query.
In a brand new research printed within the Journal of Good Cities and Society, they discover the way forward for electrified American properties by leveraging AI and analyzing Division of Vitality (DOE) building-stock information.
The crew dug deep into the vitality patterns of 129,000 single-family properties throughout eight states. Their aim? Uncover the hidden vitality “signatures” that distinguish totally electrified properties—these powered completely by electrical energy—from people who use a mixture of vitality sources.
They did not cease there, nonetheless. For recognized mixed-energy properties, the crew additionally labored to pinpoint precisely which home equipment have made the shifts to electrical energy and which have not.
After processing and analyzing the dataset, Odonkor’s crew discovered that properties’ vitality signatures weren’t solely distinguishable, however in addition they granted important insights into the resilience of particular person properties.
Photo voltaic-powered properties, for instance, demonstrated spectacular resilience throughout summer season warmth waves. Nonetheless, they proved remarkably weak throughout winter storms; in reality, totally electrified properties had been almost 3 times extra weak to winter outages, in comparison with these drawing energy from blended vitality sources.
“Think about Texas in 2021, when millions lost power during a winter storm,” Odonkor explains. “As more homes go fully electric, we need to prepare for these scenarios.” “Solar panels help in summer, but they can’t meet the intense heating demands that occur during winter blackouts.”
New strategies to tell planning and response
The research wasn’t solely pathbreaking for its findings; it was solely notable for the modern AI-powered strategies that had been used to conduct the analyses.
Odonkor’s crew developed novel machine-learning fashions able to figuring out a person house’s vitality techniques and vulnerabilities with over 95% accuracy, utilizing solely its energy-consumption patterns. The brand new method allows utilities and emergency responders to pinpoint at-risk households throughout complete neighborhoods, with out the necessity for invasive surveys or inspections.
“Until now, we actually had to go door-to-door to determine if a home was fully electric,” notes Odonkor. “Now, we can automatically identify the most vulnerable homes while still safeguarding people’s privacy. This will shift the way we prepare for and respond to extreme weather, enabling faster, and more targeted action when it’s needed most.”
The research’s potential advantages prolong past empowering particular person householders. As cities work to construct local weather resilience, these new instruments might assist neighborhood emergency-service items prioritize responses throughout outages. It might additionally help city planners within the long-term growth of extra resilient housing inventory and neighborhoods.
That is key, as a result of communities nationwide are grappling with a one-two punch of ageing energy grids subjected to extra frequent episodes of extreme climate.
As we more and more transition to electrical properties to deal with local weather change, the crew’s findings function a warning that we’ll want implement methods that shield weak photo voltaic and electrical households throughout winter emergencies.
“The path to sustainable cities isn’t just about going green; it’s about staying resilient,” he emphasizes. “As we shape the future of urban housing, understanding vulnerabilities isn’t just a luxury—it’s essential to keeping communities safe.”
Extra data:
Andrew Majowicz et al, Quantifying family vulnerability to energy outages: Assessing dangers of speedy electrification in good cities, Journal of Good Cities and Society (2025). DOI: 10.1177/27723577241306340
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Stevens Institute of Know-how
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Photo voltaic properties shine in summer season, battle in winter blackouts (2025, February 8)
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Publish date : 2025-02-08 15:14:44
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